This invention relates to systems that condition the air and more particularly to means for removing water from the airstream.
Typical water separators are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,339,349 granted to R. F. Farnum on Sept. 5, 1967 and 2,835,340 granted to T. J. McGuff and A. E. Reinhardt on May 20, 1958, both of which have been assigned to the same assignee. These two patents exemplify different means for separating the water from the airstream. In one instance, the 3,339,349 patent, this is effectuated by a centrifuge action by imparting a swirl velocity to the airstream. In the other instance the airstream passes through a porous material which is a knitted wire mesh fabric designed to collect the water droplet. However, in applications requiring high air flow velocities say 20 feet per second with extremely low pressure drop, as for example 1.0 inches of water and where space is limited, the heretofore known systems are unsatisfactory. Where the water separating systems described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,835,340 and 3,339,349 supra, were designed for aircraft application, the present invention is designed primarily for ships or industrial applications, particularly where water containing salts or other corrosive chemicals are carried in the airstream and can be injurious, say for example, to the power plant. This invention is particularly efficacious because it affords the following advantages.
1. Provides high collection efficiency usually observed to be 100% of entrained moisture in an airstream. PA0 2. Simplicity of design configuration and manufacture. PA0 3. Multiplicity of materials suitable for use including lightweight and corrosion resistant materials. PA0 4. Provides secondary coalescing action by velocity component through the material to improve performance of an upstream coalescer. PA0 5. Exacting design not critical to principles of inertial turning, collection and pressure drop. PA0 6. Reduced pressure drop when compared to use of nonporous materials. PA0 7. Self cleaning to a large extent precluding need for frequent washdown. PA0 8. Low velocity of airstream through material with long length along flow stream maximizes drainage for final collection. PA0 9. Low cost due to inherent lightweight and use of few vanes and turns. PA0 10. Minimum space envelope required in direction of flow stream.
A laboratory scaled down model employing this invention has shown to remove substantially all of the free water drops contained in the airstream and exhibited extremely low pressure drops in the order of 1.0 inches of water.